The Volusia County parks and recreation director wants the county to form a partnership with school and Deltona officials to jointly operate recreation facilities at the new Deltona high school.The school will be on Howland Boulevard at Interstate 4 and State Road 15A. It is scheduled to open in the fall of 1988.Parks director Wes Crile said he would like for the county, school board and Deltona Municipal Services District to consider splitting the cost of a swimming pool, handball and tennis courts or baseball field on the school grounds.

TAVARES - Hickory Point Recreational Facility, which is adjacent to Little Lake Harris, hosts more than 25 fishing tournaments annually that help bring in valuable tourism dollars. "It's certainly one of the jewels of Lake County," said Mike Perry, executive director of the Lake County Water Authority, which owns and manages the park that opened 20 years ago this month. "It was built with the concept of attracting and holding fishing tournaments as well as having recreational activities that everyone can enjoy.

MOUNT DORA -- The second of three planned public workshops on parks and recreation facilities is scheduled for Thursday at the First United Methodist Church. The meetings are to help develop a master plan for recreation. The city is conducting the workshops to determine what types of recreation residents want and what their concerns are. The meeting is planned for 7 p.m. in the Friendship Hall of the church, 439 E. Fifth Ave.

TAVARES - A new event will take flight this fall. "Wings and Wildflowers," a birding festival, is set for Sept. 28-30 at Hickory Point Recreational Facility. It will be sponsored by government entities and other agencies and groups. Keynote speaker will be James Currie, host of "Nikon's Birding Adventures" on NBC Sports Network. Visitors will learn about the Florida scrub-jay and scrub habitat. Field trips to preserves and public lands will be offered along with birding programs via kayaks, pontoon boats and seaplanes.

Two points can be made about the whopping defeat voters gave Sanford's attempt last week to expand city recreation facilities: As City Manager Bill Simmons said, it was ill-timed, and no program requiring more taxpayer money can be passed without being sold, good times or bad.That said, Sanford's need for improved recreation facilities remains no less. The plan should not be pushed too far back on the shelf. Once the current economic doldrums are past, it can be brought back, though perhaps in a different way.Simmons and Mayor Bettye seem to think the defeat by a whopping 91.8 percent vote merely showed that Sanford voters did not want more recreation facilities.

The city has 300 acres of land for parks, about a third of which have been developed primarily as neighborhood parks. In addition to these recreation facilities, the city and the Volusia County School Board have an agreement to use school recreation facilities during nonschool hours. Parks are open from sunrise to sunset unless otherwise posted. The city took over the management of the parks from the county Oct. 1. For more information about facilities, fees, recreation programs, reservations, special events and specific rules and regulations, call City Hall at 407-860-7160.

Orange Blossom Gardens president Harold Schwartz is being accused of battling a town sidewalk ordinance with a survey critics describe as slanted and misleading.The survey, sent out this week, asks the mobile home park's 4,000 residents if they would pay for sidewalks and favor opening recreation facilities to the public.The questions come as Orange Blossom Gardens asks to exempt a 110-acre expansion from two similar town requirements. Town ordinances require developers to donate recreation land and put in sidewalks.

TAVARES -- The County Commission today will discuss whether to advertise for a public hearing on doubling the hotel tax to fund an indoor athletic complex in Clermont and other recreation facilities in the county. The plan calls for increasing the county's current bed tax, charged on hotels and temporary lodging, from 2 percent to 4 percent, which would bring in an additional $700,000 a year. Greg Mihalic, county economic and tourism director, thinks the move could be a tourism and economic boon, drawing major regional and national events.

Oviedo -- Oviedo commissioners Monday night gave the go-ahead to the first phase of a planned mixed-use downtown, Oviedo on the Park. The initial phase, scheduled for completion in early 2008, will cover 56 acres of the 103-acre project, said city spokeswoman Susan Vernon-Devlin. The project is planned for a site northeast of the intersection of State Road 434 and Mitchell Hammock Road and will be developed by Broad Street Partners LLC. Construction is to begin in January and include multifamily residential and retail space.

The city commission gave preliminary approval Monday to take Apopka up on a deal to exchange the labor of a Winter Park city crew for 43,200 used bricks. The deal is to have the Winter Park crew, which is experienced in laying brick streets, re-lay bricks on an Apopka street where the road is in disrepair.Public works director Jim Williams said Winter Park can pave 1,200 square yards with the bricks it expects to receive. The Winter Park library parking lot is expected to be paved with bricks from Apopka.

CLERMONT -- Lake County could partner with this city to create a long-anticipated regional sports park. The county spent years considering whether to put a large recreation facility near Clermont and what site could be used. Meanwhile, Clermont strongly encouraged the idea because so many county residents use crowded ballfields and other facilities maintained by the city. Chances to build the regional park seemed to dwindle along with county funds. Soaring land prices also made the project difficult to attain.

Lake Nona, the future home of a medical school, a major biotech firm and a veterans hospital, is getting another notch on its belt: It will contain Orlando's largest public park. The developer of the massive southeast Orlando community has agreed to build a sprawling park at the south end of Lake Nona and then turn it over to the city. The park will include sports fields, a golf range, lakes for canoeing and hiking and biking trails. At 334 acres, the as-yet-unnamed park will be the biggest of Orlando's more than 100 recreation areas.

MINNEOLA -- Seventeen years after the end of the Civil War, engineer George Hull traveled from Minnesota with a dream to establish a lakefront community in Central Florida. He picked a couple hundred acres along the shores of Cow House Lake. Then he followed his wife's suggestion to share a new name for their township with the nearly 2,000-acre water body. They picked Minneola. Now, 125 years later, the city has grown to about 9,500 residents. But Minneola has never officially had a waterfront park.

Oviedo -- Oviedo commissioners Monday night gave the go-ahead to the first phase of a planned mixed-use downtown, Oviedo on the Park. The initial phase, scheduled for completion in early 2008, will cover 56 acres of the 103-acre project, said city spokeswoman Susan Vernon-Devlin. The project is planned for a site northeast of the intersection of State Road 434 and Mitchell Hammock Road and will be developed by Broad Street Partners LLC. Construction is to begin in January and include multifamily residential and retail space.

Kissimmee commissioners recently passed an ordinance that makes it illegal for children to play a pickup game of basketball on a neighborhood street. On the surface, the new law makes some sense, but a deeper look shows city commissioners acted too hastily and possibly ignored the real issue. As soon as they are old enough to comprehend, children are taught not to play in the streets. It's not safe. The risk factor doesn't go away just because the kids get older, and the city understandably doesn't want to be held liable for a child's injury or death.

MOUNT DORA -- The second of three planned public workshops on parks and recreation facilities is scheduled for Thursday at the First United Methodist Church. The meetings are to help develop a master plan for recreation. The city is conducting the workshops to determine what types of recreation residents want and what their concerns are. The meeting is planned for 7 p.m. in the Friendship Hall of the church, 439 E. Fifth Ave.

Residents might see increases in their city tax bills next year, but it won't be because of a higher property tax rate.The City Council has decided to leave the rate the same as this year's, about $3.17 per $1,000 of taxable property value. That doesn't include a levy of 52 cents per $1,000 that voters approved in 1992 to finance improvements to parks and recreation facilities, streets and the public library.The total city tax bill on a $100,000 home with a $25,000 homestead exemption will be $276.

Shall the city of Oviedo, Florida, issue not to exceed $3.5 million in bonds to finance capital improvements to the city's parks and recreation facilities, pedestrian network to improve access to city parks and schools, and other purposes incidental thereto, bearing an interest rate not exceeding the maximum legal rate, maturing within a maximum of 30 years from date thereof, payable from certain legally available non-ad valorem revenues of the city; as...

PAISLEY -- Neighbors in the tiny Deerhaven community on the edge of the Ocala National Forest are joining together to help save several homes from rising floodwaters. The homes surround the southern portion of Lake Deerhaven, which rose quickly since last month amid weeks of heavy rain. The lake now is within a few feet of flooding one rural dirt road, and adjacent ponds have swallowed up yards, creeping dangerously close to the homes. The north shore has climbed over docks and flooded a beach at the Deerhaven Campground.

TAVARES -- The County Commission today will discuss whether to advertise for a public hearing on doubling the hotel tax to fund an indoor athletic complex in Clermont and other recreation facilities in the county. The plan calls for increasing the county's current bed tax, charged on hotels and temporary lodging, from 2 percent to 4 percent, which would bring in an additional $700,000 a year. Greg Mihalic, county economic and tourism director, thinks the move could be a tourism and economic boon, drawing major regional and national events.